Paul McCartney (2/Cd) Ageless Music Anthology 2

Disc 1 (79:36): (1974-1976) Country Dreamer, Twenty Flight Rock, Down By The River ~ Great Day, Sweet Little Sixteen, Rock Show (Outtake), Letting Go (Rough Mix), Listen To What The Man Said (Rough Mix), Treat Her Gently / Lonely Old People (Rough Mix), Crossroads Theme (Rough Mix), Treat Her Gently / Lonely Old People (Rough Mix), Ou Est Le Soleil (Studio Demo), The Note You Never Wrote (Rough Mix), She ‘s My Baby (Take1) (Rough Mix), She’s My Baby ( Version 2) (Rough Mix), Beware My Love (Instrumental) (Acetate), Beware My Love (Alternate Vocal) (Rough Mix), Wino Junko (Rough Mix), Silly Love Songs (Rough Mix), Time to Hide? (Instrumental) (Rough Mix), Must Do Something About It (Paul on vocals), Oobu Joobu (Studio Demo)

Disc 2 (77:40): (1976-1978) Super Big Heatwave (Old Siam Sir) (Studio Demo), Suicide (1977 Studio Demo), Love Awake (1977 Studio Demo), Sea Melody (Home Demo), A Fairly Tale (Home Demo), Backwards Traveller (Studio Demo), After You’ve Gone (Studio Demo), I’m Carrying? (Rough Mix), With A Little Luck (Rough Mix), I’ve Had Enough (Rough Mix), Morse Moose and the Grey Goose (Instrumental) (Rough Mix), Mull of Kintyre (Rough Mix), Did We Meet Somewhere Before? (Rough Mix), Same Time Next Year (Rough Mix), It Seems Like Old Time (Piano Demo), It Seems Like Old Time (Piano Demo), SMA (Studio Demo), Rupert Song (Version 1) (Acetate), The Castle Of The King Of The Birds (Acetate), Sunshine Sometime (Acetate), Sea Melody (Acetate), Rupert Song (Version 2) (Acetate)

Ageless Music Anthology Vol. 2 picks up where the first volume left off with Paul McCartney outtakes spanning the middle to the late seventies. It is a mixture of older tapes with some of the new Trevor Jones sourced tapes to produce a comprehensive collection, ranging from tracks from Band On The Run to Back To The Egg.

The opening tracks are from the “backyard tape,” recording in Elstree Studio, August 1974. McCartney is in a mellow mood as he strums on his acoustic guitar, playing “Country Dreamer,” Eddie Cochrane’s “Twenty Flight Rock,” and a bit of Neil Young’s “Down By The River.” Also present is an early version of “Great Day” which would be recorded more than twenty years later for Flaming Pie.

Following are many different tracks from the Venus And Mars sessions that took place between January and April of 1975. Many of these tracks are sourced from a low bias cassette dub of some early takes and some later more polished remixes and others from the recent Jones tape. “Rock Show” is a seven minute take which has significant differences with the released version.

The rough recording of “Listen To What The Man Said,” segueing into “Treat Her Gently / Lonely Old People” just like on the album, has appeared before. This recording lacks the horn section which carried the melody. It is interesting hearing Dave Mason’s funky / disco guitar riff throughout the track.

Many of the Speed Of Sound tracks also surfaced earlier this year including “Silly Love Songs” without the horn overdub, the alternate “Beware My Love” and “Wino Junko” with unused guitar fills. Comparing this material to the Misterclaudel edition shows that Strange Apple tried to reduce the hiss.

The second disc starts with “Super Big Heatwave.” Recorded in 1976, this would later resurface on Back To The Egg several years later as “Old Siam Sir.” The track is almost complete at the stage, even with the lyrics.

“Suicide” is a recording of the torch song McCartney composed about the time of his first solo album in 1970. This demo was recorded in 1977, and is followed by an early demo of “Love Awake,” which would be finished for Back To The Egg.

“Sea Melody” and “A Fairy Tale” are home demos recorded in May 1977. It is an amateur recording and Paul’s kids are audible talking and singing along. These tracks can also be found on Water Wings on Vigotone. Following are more tracks from the London Town sessions in the Virgin Islands and in Scotland. They represents the songs in various forms of completeness and roughness.

“Backwards Traveller” and “After You’ve Gone” are studio recordings. The former is close to the commercial version of the track as it appears on London Town. “After You’ve Gone” is a bluey arrangement of the 1910 jazz classic tune. Strange Apple continue the use of the Beatles white album fonts and overall design for this collection of demos and outtakes and is another nice collection of material.